Illinois High School Cancels Varsity Football Season A Week Before Kickoff

School season is back but football season isn't for one school.

Eisenhower High School in Decatur, Illinois has announced they are canceling their 2026 varsity football season.

Week 1 of the Illinois High School football season is set for August 20th.

The school says that even though they're not doing varsity football this year, they will still field a junior varsity team.

As to the why, the school says it's because of low participation numbers and a "concern for student safety". The Eisenhower Panthers went 1-8 last season (still better than my high school really).

Last year was the 5th straight season for the Panthers to have a 1-8 record, which is better than their 0-9 records the 2 years before. This year, they were set to play  MacArthur, Lincoln, Southeast, Lanphier, Mascoutah, Mt. Zion, Rochester, U-High and Glenwood.

Their opponents have one of 2 choices now that Eisenhower has pulled their team: the schools can accept a forfeit win and not play that week or they can schedule a different opponent and accept the score of whatever happens there.

IHSA Associate Executive Director Matt Troha told USA Today:

In most cases, it is too late, but there are a few teams out there that only have eight games on the schedule, so it’s possible that a few add games, but unlikely they all do...In recent years, we have also had some teams choose to double-up and play a conference team twice. So, they could choose to do that within their league as well.

The win last season for the Panthers last year was a 27-21 win against Lanphier in week 8.